U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,052 entitled "Digital I.sup.2 T Pickup, Time Bands and Timing Control Circuits for Static Trip Circuit Breakers" in the name of John J. Dougherty discloses a circuit breaker trip unit which is completely contained within a single integrated circuit chip. The chip, in turn, is mounted on a printed wire board to facilitate connection with the remaining circuit breaker components. This patent is incorporated herein for purposes of reference.
An integrated electronic trip molded case circuit breaker which includes an electronic trip unit as well as at least one circuit breaker accessory unit within a common housing is described within U.S. patent application Ser. No. 045,645 entitled "Rating Plug Enclosure for Molded Case Circuit Breakers". This Application is incorporated herein for purposes of reference.
When the printed wire board containing the trip unit circuit is arranged within the circuit breaker enclosure, an internal barrier integrally formed within the circuit breaker interior, insures that the gaseous by-products generated during contact separation under overload current conditions do not contaminate the sensitive electronic circuit components. The positioning of the internal barrier and printed wire board in the vicinity of the circuit breaker operating handle, requires the operating handle interior components to be reduced in size in order to provide adequate space for the printed wire board and the internal barrier.
One purpose of the instant invention is to provide an operating handle arrangement which allows the operating handle to be moved between its "ON" and "OFF" positions without interfering with the trip unit printed wire board or the internal barrier. A further purpose of this invention is to provide external indication of the condition of the circuit breaker contacts.